3D printing is a technology for creating a three-dimensional objects based on three-dimensionally designed data by synthesizing various materials. The 3D printing, called a third industrial revolution, is expected to change technological paradigms in numerous fields including the manufacturing field and foster industrial innovation.
Methods of making three-dimensional objects are divided into an additive manufacturing method that manufactures a three-dimensional object by stacking a solid specific material, and a subtractive manufacturing method that cuts or sharpens a three-dimensional object through machine processing. The subtractive manufacturing method is performed by a 4- or 5-axis processor, and has been already commercialized and widely used in industrial fields.
Additive manufacturing methods include a fused deposition modeling (FDM) method by which a plastic material is melted and is sprayed out by a nozzle. This method is a relatively cheap 3D printing solution, and is believed to reduce consumption of materials relative to other 3D printing methods. Additive manufacturing methods also include a selective laser sintering (SLS) method by which a product is made by thinly spreading a powder material on a field and sintering only a selected part using a laser. 3-dimensional printing (3DP) includes thinly spreading a powder-like material, like the SLS method, but spraying an adhesive and allowing it to hard, instead of applying a laser to it.
3D printing is prefaced by processes that include: 3D modeling; standard tessellation language (STL) or additive manufacturing format (AMF) file conversion; G-code conversion; and real object printing using a host program.
3D modeling pertains to forming an object in a three-dimensional configuration using computer aided design (CAD) software, animation modeling software such as Maya and MAX, a 3D scanner, etc. The resulting 3D modeling data may be converted to an STL file that can be received and processed by a 3D printer. The conversion into the STL file is performed by common CAD software.